here in the united states legislatures throughout the world devote all these different laws tax laws and corporate laws what could be more important than deciding on the permanent genetic future of life on earth. wealthy british style it's time to. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mikes concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cons a report. in india in the move to join. the gateway who took the brunt imperial truly the top western coast coromandel.

closely to see don't need to go and. read this and the colonel was hotel as a retreat. five thirty am in moscow the zero headlines three months on from the fukushima nuclear disaster in japan public anger at the concealment of the true size of the disaster spills on to the streets as people demand action and the ongoing crisis in march a huge tsunami swept ashore leaving tens of thousands dead and damaging the fukushima reactor. powerful dangerous possibly illegal that's the view of activists protesting the secretive meeting of some of the world's most influential political and financial leaders at the builder burg conference the group claims it offers a useful form for people in positions of authority to discuss problems candidly outside the player of the media. looks of the large scale modernization of the

russian city of sochi is undergoing to make the twenty fourteen paralympic games easily accessible for participants and spectators russia's paralympic team has long been near the top of the leaderboard at the vancouver two thousand and ten games they want to total of thirty eight medals in gold up next a look behind the scenes of the u.s. broadcast industry stay with us here on r.t. . when charles from. san antonio ways can try. to. keep the crowd. i'm not. the only piece here. in.

our story begins during the great depression times were hard and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like a miracle. i'll see our friends get it into the queue behind your radio dial who ever where ever you may be to radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into your own homes. just broadcasting retained faith it was hope. in that spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public i'm simply waves are considered public property the federal communications commission is charged with the responsibility of protecting the people going through the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed to licenses were free of charge but there was a catch t.v. and radio owners had to serve the public if they did not people could challenge their sizes and the f.c.c. could take them away. and the f.c.c.

understood that radio and t.v. you should be owned locally so they passed strict rules limiting the number of stations any one person could elevation in defense needed to stay cuckold least six hours in operated by n.b.c. . then came the war. and radio became a lifeline. for president of united states the information we were getting was vital we all knew that it's a date which will live. in infamy important to our national security important to our democracy our earth is edward morrow speaking from armor and we learned this new medium could be used against us each and every night at least they were laid off in a video proof of her yankee perth or. a rescuer are not. sure

for sure. what they did of course of those fascist regimes was it just broadcast over and over again the information and the perspective the point of view and the propaganda that they wanted people to digest absorb and so the federal communications commission back in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine incorporated something called the fairness doctrine the fairness doctrine required radio and t.v. stations to provide coverage to fight only important controversy on issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast to the points you ask to bring them on you have to give people the opportunity to express an alternative point of view now it was a code that served us well good evening through the administrations of truman eisenhower kennedy johnson nixon ford and carter more generally like yours robert reich. and then a real media man came into power what i will faithfully execute the office ronald

reagan was the king of deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v. and radio active so one person could own dozens of broadcast ations nationwide and said the free market would provide fairness and broadcasting so they got rid of the fair to start. anyway back then republicans and democrats passed a bill to reinstate the fairness doctrine newt gingrich and trent lott were co-sponsors. but ronald reagan vetoed it. the one thousand nine hundred six telecommunications act suddenly allowed big companies like clear channel to own twelve hundred stations nationwide and brown program them with conservative talk radio was. to set the bars. and looking at the five largest operators what we found was a nine to one or ten to wanted fan which conservative talk show hosts self

declared conservative hosts versus folks who declare themselves liberal or progressive. vantage of roughly twenty five hundred hours of conservative talk as opposed to two hundred fifty hours of liberal or progressive talk this is an extraordinary talent but in places like houston texas for example. we found looking monday through friday concert commercial radio stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressives no liberals represented the two thousand and seven study by free press and the center for american progress shows ninety two percent of conservative stations don't air even a single minute of the other side you want to hear a radio talk or bash republicans good luck especially if you live in the midwest mainstream that breaks the inside the beltway mystique but you might hear it schultz ed does his nationally syndicated show out of fargo north dakota and his

ratings are good he's matching bill o'reilly's numbers. don't see talkers magazine now is out the ed schultz show has got over three million listers progressive talk we got it start in two thousand and four and it now seems to be having an effect many formerly red states that heard ed and and air america were highly competitive were voted blue in two thousand and eight while those that heard only conservative talk went read. as usual but here's the scary part since the democrats made gains in the two thousand and six election corporate radio took big into every other progressive talker in the key swing state of ohio off the air first and. then columbus fall and replaced them with shows they get half there are things that will they're out there greasing the skids right now in the winter of those seven

with a zero point six number. when i was on there in the fall of zero five it was like a two point four the same status trains to make it. market that you're going to have a problem and it isn't just ohio since two thousand and six dozen so well performing liberal programs have been taken off the air across the country fresno new haven san diego austin and many more i think it's political and i don't think there's any doubt you can look at the numbers this business is owned by conservatives it's managed by conservatives and it is programmed by conservatives the distorting effect of all that was causing a problem in our democracy that was causing people to act based on false information to make decisions about public policy to make decisions in the voting

booth based on simply information that was wrong and that there had to be a corrective to that and so in may of two thousand and four i launched a media matters media matters is a research website which tracks conservative misinformation in the news it's a simple concept record with talk show hosts and news people say then check their facts turns out there's a lot of false would also good which david brock used to perpetrate author david brock uncovered evidence about anita hill but has been since or by liberals time pattern of crying sexual harassment or political radicalism most important or likely motivation for destroying the earth. then he learned to keep been lied to subscribe i came to be aware that the people around clarence thomas who had helped me write that account. didn't believe the account themselves same with rocks troopergate story that led to the paula jones lawsuit the judge dismissed that case

because it had no merit it were. in other words it was a frivolous lawsuit and that whole thing led to president clinton's impeachment. i just couldn't do what i was doing anymore once i realized what it was he'd been working for a newspaper magnate richard mellon scaife who paid the american spectator magazine two million dollars to dig up dirt on the clintons the information didn't need to be true just damaging the conservative movement also had a hidden media agenda well they claim that the complaint is one of liberal bias i think and i've looked pretty carefully at the sun i've looked at many of the studies that claim this at the end of the day the real goal is to disable journalism from being able to do its job independently and neutrally jane and her husband steve wilson were an award winning investigative reporting teams working at

w.t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then they uncovered a story about hormones being secretly injected into our milk supply t.v. team ran this promotion for the investigation just to cancer nobody else in the country covered this and then they get fired for trying to tell the story when b.t.h. manufacture monsanto threatened to sue fox news w t v t pulled the report then tried to get the investigators to change their story. but the reporters wouldn't back down they can ask you to put things on the air broadcast to the public over the public airwaves that are untrue that are unsubstantiated or flat out on true and that's also what they were asking us to do they crossed that line and that's an important distinction to make so a korean wilson threaten to report the news distortion to the f.c.c. that's when you fire them very courageous they file a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial

a korea tourney john chambliss most or so celebs. this. all of the year and from there on him throughout an effort is made to go to the scientists or to distort the story in a way that we will believe that monsanto these folks refused to do in this weather for steve wilson played his own case you know what this story cost. two careers. and i want it. there was only one way or wilson could win under judge roll steinberg instructed the jury for they'd have to prove w. t.v. station management had deliberately tried to distort the news proof of a violation requires that the plaintiffs establish that the via t.v. t.'s station or news management acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort plainness proposed a news report on b g eight wilson last but janie cre won her case because she

threatened to disclose to the federal communications commission on your oath the broadcast of a false distorted or slanted news report yes so a creep proved news distortion and you wouldn't know it from the spin on w t v t there fox thirteen representatives say the jury through its verdicts clearly stated that the station did not tell a korean wilson to falsify and distort the news through their b. g.h. story but we are completely vindicated on the finding of this theory that we do not distort news for lost wages eighty eight thousand seven hundred and twenty five dollars that does not have to do with the store show the news it is not true false vacation of the us for last earning capacity one hundred twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars i think today is a wonderful day for a box or two for other damages two hundred fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars fox appealed to the jury's decision which is india and their attorneys

argued there is no law against news distortion you haven't found a stash. you haven't found a rule we haven't found a regulation what we're doing is importing into that's the news distortion and it went to the second district court of appeals in florida and they bought the fox argument that yes policy but it's not technically against any law or rule of regulation to destroy what they're saying is the new is really belongs to the corporation the putting it out and that it's not against the water while the public . it's an f.c.c. rule but it's not against the law where does that leave us as people who are served by the broadcast airwaves for thirty five president the general right if you're probably the socialist and completely devastated by the ruling and wilson ended up paying fox attorney fees. the road to war in iraq took some strange turn stranger than a detour to the west african country of these your reports which do hold government

accountable like this can cost a lot of money from a team of people that put months into research and travel and production just to air one eight minute story to build a nuclear bomb explain they've largely been replaced with coverage like this the costs very little anna nicole smith's flashing interview that means profits for shareholders and divert attention from real you know whatever happened to investigative reporting and i think part of what happened is corporatization of the media it's the bottom line so the first thing you do is you fire a quarter of the newsroom or half the newsroom so you don't even have the reporters that go out there and to get the story it's you know how can you get a quick and i can tell you it's a lot cheaper to have two people arguing on t.v. from you know you know polaroids point of views than actual reporters out there digging up the story and saying ok america here's the facts you decide and maybe. it's the. media consolidation means fewer reporters and those who remain too

often feel pressured to play nice with government it's a nasty little game called access that is one of the biggest media manipulations is you want our guy you want our woman well you better play the game you better play by our rules if you want that we call that in our field interview some real headline maker everybody wants to get on there you want that person that's a valuable commodity you. again the top newsmakers in the bush administration were a great get and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq where were the hard questions. abysmal i think that the press dropped the ball i think that when they should have been the real watchdogs and should have. let the chips fall where they may they defaulted totally and they did say in the run up to the war with so clear for two years we

were going to war and nobody asked why but we know now. that saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons high quality aluminum tubes which is what you have to have in order to build a suitable for nuclear weapons production there were no weapons of mass destruction worth. that the first thing to scare everyone we don't want the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud note. we do have solid evidence of the presence in their right of. members there was a pattern the relationship that went back at least a decade between iraq and al qaeda was a lot of obvious deception at a time when it was crucial for our country which was right after nine eleven they felt that they had big to be sober patriots and support the government no matter what they gave up their one weapon which was skepticism out of the news p.

did the administration. have a contract with. the order to time and dangers saddam hussein put his biological weapons laboratories in trucks little turned out to be true only talk shows instead of providing clarity on the single most of mine an issue of our generation the press only created confusion it is smoking gun is an interesting phrase six years after the attacks on new york city. in the pentagon the newsweek poll showed forty one percent of americans saddam hussein was directly terrorist attacks and i don't think we ever should i know i didn't say that there was a direct connection between september the eleventh and saddam assuming nobody's ever suggested that the attacks of september the eleventh were ordered by iraq no wonder the news media has lost the public trust they want to make policy choices

based on truth and what i heard is that people didn't really quite feel that the mainstream media in the media as we most of us experience. was truth telling the group fairness and accuracy reporting did a. study of the two weeks around february fifth two thousand and three right before the invasion before major that newscast n.b.c. a.b.c. c.b.s. and the p.b.s. news hour with jim lehrer there were three hundred ninety three interviews done around the war only three were with antiwar leaders three of almost four hundred when half the population was supposed to be invasion that is no longer in mainstream media that's an extreme beating the drums for war a recent new york times report says the media got right in bed with the pentagon to promote the war former military officers would get talking points directly from the pentagon than say them on the air no questions asked if they serve

a good. gesture that is needed to tell us generally a talking point imagine an iraq ruled by you guessed it yet needs to be the measure in iraq imagine iraq other countries are talking point link iraq to iran i believe that iran is now the number one cricket maker in iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts based on the t.v. and the radio. have ties to military contractors people who could possibly be making money off. most would consider that a potential conflict of interest maybe not even potential at the same time reporters who did ask hard questions were punished by the white house. reporter jonathan landay covered the speech dick cheney gave in august two thousand and two the veterans of foreign wars many of us are. weapons. that

was based on absolutely nothing. it was pulled out of thin air there was absolutely no intelligence no evidence whatsoever for that assertion. and began writing about faulty intelligence about how there was no link between iraq and al qaeda about failed policies that series of stories. of people trying to shut me out of travel. have not been allowed to. trip pentagon since. that three years. the chill by white house correspondent. he had been trying to get on the vice president's plane in early two thousand and four. there was no. it's my belief. a lot of journalists did not ask

questions of this administration's policies particularly in the run up to the war because they were afraid of having happened to them what happened to me and has happened to others an example of why media ownership matters to democracy before reporting. sheds light on the reasons why. they are being asked to go and risk life and limb and health and family and everything else. then we're doing our job and if that displeases the secretary of defense if it just pleases the vice president so be it. we trusted as we. have to stop him it's the biggest scandal of the bush administration is the story of reporters who protected their access to top officials first and put their responsibility to the public laughs. the story really begins with him bastard

joseph wilson wilson was the acting ambassador to iraq before the first gulf war when saddam hussein took more than one hundred americans hostages joe wilson stared him down saddam hussein backed off and released the americans for that president george herbert walker bush proclaimed wilson a national hero. then that hero heard president george w. bush make this statement in the two thousand and three state of the union address the british government has learned saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa a year earlier the cia had sent wilson to investigate the uranium claim and he knew it wasn't true their level of corruption. demonstrated from the top down is staggering to the american people wrote about it in the new york times that touched off a firestorm at the white house coolness robert novak tried to discredit wilson by

writing a story that wilson's wife valerie plame who worked at the cia sent him on the trip trouble was she worked as a spy for the cia nobody was supposed to know she worked there the cia even told no that not to publish that information but no that did. told. me not to use or did not say she was a she was a. former president bush was not a. used human intelligence spies. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody working clandestine service. his name is going to appear i'm sure they're both places deputy defense secretary richard admitted he was the first to leak despise name and he apologized for it. but white house staffers karl rove in lewis libby also sprayed the covert agents name to reporters at the same

time for sure in the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it and they are good individuals they're important members of our white house team and that's why i spoke with them so that i could come back to you and say that they were not involved i went to both those individuals asked them point blank were you involved in the leaking of valerie plame identity in any way both them told me unequivocally no but scott mcclellan now says in his new book rove and libby lied to him and it turns out a lot of reporters knew it but said nothing and scott mcclellan the white house spokesperson gets up and he says karl rove is absolutely vall well there were at least three probably four people if not in that room that watched it live at various news organization the knew that that was a flat out lie because they had talked to karl rove about ellery plame and who she was good with were so eager for access to the white house they allowed themselves

to be used for political gain using the reporters in effect to carry out their political mission and that's different from cultivating a source to get information that's of value to you as a journalist here you are being used by the tolerant official to carry out their political work instead of clarifying the facts in this national security breach the media just had a free for all i think that while i always you know. our innocence wasn't covert which is just ridiculous was she in fact a covert agent was never even proved there was no doubt that her relationship with the cia was classified if you give the identity of a classified person it doesn't mean diddly squat to be a covert agent and i still don't believe she was in tears in any covert activities he knew whether she was covert or not from day one and she isn't she's never been proven to be covert to endangering national security by outing a co mary will be

a operators a lot of color are sewers not a covert operative the i.a.e.a. says that she was for the record valerie plame wilson was a covert agent the cia put it in writing. twenty years ago its first president. in the midst of colossal change. setting a new direction for a new country. saluting the state on russia today.